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‘Thisshowshowbrutalfootballcanbe’

Per Mertesacker says Monday night’s defeat to Swansea City shows just how “brutal” football can be.

The Gunners dominated possession and went close on a number of occasions but could find no way past former Gunner Lukasz Fabianski.

They were made to pay in the 86th minute as Bafetimbi Gomis headed in the winner for the visitors, and Mertesacker was left to rue a difficult night.

"It didn’t happen and [shows] how brutal football is. All of a sudden they score out of nothing so yeah, one of those nights"

Per Mertesacker

“We tried everything to get in front, to get an opener,” he told Arsenal Player. “That would have been lovely and have made it so much easier for us.

“But it didn’t happen and [shows] how brutal football is. All of a sudden they score out of nothing so yeah, one of those nights.

“I think we were patient over the 90 minutes. You could see in the second half that we were nearly there. We had the chances, we created more and more and we put them under massive pressure.

“It’s a disappointing night for us but we’ll keep going because we believe in ourselves and that’s what made us strong in the last couple of weeks. That was a big punishment for us here but we are still in a good mood and I’m convinced that we’ll bounce back very quickly.”

Mertesacker reserved special praise for Fabianski, but said Arsenal should have worked the Poland international more.

“He was a good team-mate and will always be so it was a good night for him but frustrating for us,” the defender said.” We gave him the opportunity to make good saves.

“I think there were plenty of chances where we could have done better in front of goal to give him no chance. He had a good today but we didn’t execute as well as we normally do.”

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